Bitfinex Review
Why Does Bitfinex Suck in 50 Words
In 2016, Bitfinex was hacked and had approximately $72 million of Bitcoin stolen from their customers. This, combined with their lack of transparency has led many traders to avoid their system.
Why Bitfinex Doesn’t Suck in 50 Words?
Although they had $72 million stolen from them, they paid it back in full as of April 2017. This should restore their customers’ trust, and then some, because of the massive expense and investment it would have taken to do this. The platform also has a high degree of liquidity and relatively low fees.
Is Bitfinex A Scam?
As with most companies, many of the claims by customers of them having been “scammed” are really just cases of poor customer service. This is a hassle, yes, but it is not a crime and just means that you might have slower than normal service. The fact that Bitfinex paid back all the stolen Bitcoin should give you complete trust in their integrity as a business.
Should I Open an Account with Bitfinex?
Bitfinex is one of the oldest and biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, having gone through monumental growth since being founded in 2012. They are based in Hong Kong, founded by Raphael Nicolle and owned/operated by the company iFinex Inc., with its affiliates BFXWW Inc. and BFXNA Inc.
Most of the information surrounding Bitfinex has to do with the hack, but there is a lot of other relevant information out there that would help traders decide whether this is a good platform for them.
As one of the largest trading platforms, Bitfinex is also the platform most likely to have a deep book. For those who are new, that means there is a high amount of liquidity and it is easy to buy and sell at the quoted price. Not all cryptocurrencies are available on Bitfinex yet, but they are steadily adding more options as it becomes financially viable for their business.
The user interface is something that can only be judged subjectively. The person using it is the true decider of whether the experience is good or not. One thing is clear – Bitfinex is definitely geared more towards advanced users rather than absolute beginners.
One of the biggest setbacks in the past was that fiat deposits/withdrawals were not accepted, however, Bitfinex changed its status and is now a crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat exchange, so once you get your funds into the platform, you have a great amount of functionality available to you.
To argue against the trustworthiness of Bitfinex is to ignore the fact they paid back all of their customers who were defrauded, rather than just declaring bankruptcy and moving on. This shows a solid amount of integrity in their business, and there is a lot to be learned from it.
Bitfinex Online Presence And Reputation
It’s easy to understand why at the time of the hack and in the following period, people screamed Scam all over the internet. Many believed the hack to be fake and didn’t expect to see their money ever again, but fortunately, this wasn’t the case and all customers were reimbursed, which totally restored Bitfinex’s reputation. Currently, they enjoy a positive vibe, without any major hiccups.
Bitfinex Special Features
In May 2019, Bitfinex launched its own coin dubbed LEO and issued by Unus Sed Leo Limited, a new company owned by Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex. The token sale resulted in more than 1 billion USD and it is currently trading on Bitfinex’s platform at roughly $1.50. Apart from trading it on the platform, users can use LEO to get fee discounts of up to 15%.
Bitfinex Overall Ratings
User Friendliness 13/20
The website is translated into 4 languages but it can be a bit difficult to find the information you are looking for. The platform is better suited for advanced users, mobile versions are available, as well as a Demo but keep in mind that you won’t be able to open any virtual/practice trades on that account. In fact, it’s not even an account, it’s just a look at the platform and the features it offers. US clients are not accepted as of August 2018.
Range Of Markets And Volume 18/20
At Bitfinex users can trade over 120 markets (cryptocurrency pairs and crypto-fiat pairs) and their trading volume is huge – reported at over $340 million daily at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap.
Fees 15/20
Trading fees are 0.1% for the maker and 0.2% for the taker and can go lower when your trading volume increases – for example, when you trade more than $500,000, your maker fee will go to 0.08%, while the taker fee remains the same. Above $10 million you will pay zero maker fee and 0.18% taker fee, so if you’re a whale, you’ll love the fees at Bitfinex. For us mere mortals who will not trade above $10 mil, the fees are still pretty OK.
Deposits And Withdrawals 15/20
Under normal circumstances, crypto deposits and withdrawals take just a few minutes, depending on network congestion. Deposits above $1,000 equivalent are free but anything below that will be considered a “Small Deposit” and will be charged a fee of 0.0004 BTC, 0.001 LTC, 0.00135 ETH. Withdrawals incur the same fee (full fee schedule listed on their official Fee page). Clients can also choose to deposit/withdraw via wires, which carries a fee of 0.1% (minimum 60 EUR/USD).
Bitfinex Extras 17/20
Margin trading can be considered an extra although more and more exchanges are starting to add this feature. Traders can use 3.3x leverage which comes from a peer-to-peer funding market; in other words, other users will fund you but if there’s no willing party, Bitfinex will provide funding at the best available rate.